Joe Wieland ready to help deep leaguers

The San Diego Padres seem destined for a repeat last-place finish in the National League West, but good news came in the form of a late Tuesday tweet: Here comes Joe Wieland!

Weiland, whom ESPN Insider Keith Law rates as the No. 8 prospect in the Padres' organization, is a right-handed pitcher with terrific minor league numbers and a bright future, and his big league future appears slated to begin Saturday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers. His tweet said, "My dream has finally come true!!!" I assume he wasn't talking about gas prices in Tucson, Ariz., going down, or a pending appearance on "American Idol."

Christopher Hanewinckel/US PresswireJoe Wieland is 33-19 with a 3.29 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in his minor league career.

A control pitcher with enough strikeout potential to pique fantasy interest, Wieland will replace Dustin Moseley, who is older, less talented and dealing with major shoulder troubles. It's reasonable to think Wieland won't be pitching in the minor leagues again.

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Eric Karabell

Eric Karabell is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He has worked at ESPN since 1997 and covered fantasy sports for ESPN since 2001, specializing in baseball and football. Eric contributes to ESPN The Magazine and appears on a variety of digital platforms for ESPN.com. He has been honored twice as fantasy sports writer of the year by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association, his blog was named best fantasy baseball series for 2007 and he was inducted into the inaugural FSWA Hall of Fame class in 2011.

Eric grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, and accordingly, favors all Philly teams first, his fantasy teams second. He previously served as ESPN.com's lead NBA editor, and is a former Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer sports writer. Eric is also the author of "The Best Philadelphia Sports Arguments," published by Source Books and available in bookstores and online.